The Ping-Pong Queen of Chinatown

Gr 9 Up–Felix Ma is an average high school junior. Following the advice of his college admissions coach Mr. Qin, Felix starts a film club at school, endeavoring to turn the activity into an extracurricular for his college applications. Felix makes a film with his school friend Gaspard featuring the Chinatown Ping-Pong Queen, Cassie Chow. Cassie is a high school senior growing up in Chinatown. Felix met Cassie when he participated in a piano tournament and the Chinatown ping-pong competition before he moved to suburban Great Neck, Long Island. Both Felix and Cassie find they have similar anxieties about fully meeting their parents' expectations. They both want to prove that they are neither losers nor quitters. Felix and Cassie become close friends as they meet regularly for filming in New York’s Chinatown. During the filmmaking adventure, Felix and Cassie unexpectedly reveal their emotional scars from their parents. Felix also discovers truths about himself and realizes that he will have to decide whether to please his parents or lose Cassie, his closest friend. The novel depicts first-generation Chinese American kids who are caught between two cultures and their filial obligation to have great academic achievement.